In the packaging industry the processing devices or machines used for the production of packaging articles, as well as the machines for the production of packagings, machines for grouping of articles or packs etc. need to be adjusted frequently, according to the respectively manufactured product. The machines can be retooled or adjusted, for example, by exchanging format parts or by adjusting certain parts of the machinery.
If, for example, a new bottle shape is to be produced in a blow molding device, the blow molds must be exchanged accordingly. This is preferably done manually or semi-automatically or in a fully automated process at a designated accessible position on the blowing wheel. The facilities required for semiautomatic changes or fully automatic changes are very costly. A change of format parts by operating personnel is associated with a high time requirement.
In the following example, the manual exchange of blow molds by a human operator is described. After the exchange of a first blow mold, the blowing wheel is rotated by a corresponding angle. Now the next blow mold is in the respective retooling position and can be replaced. The blowing wheel only moves, when the operator presses an appropriate control switch. This ensures that the operator is not within the range of movement of the blowing wheel. The operation of the control switch triggers the rotation of the blowing wheel. Because only one operator can work on the machine and replace only one format part at a given time, this retooling method is very time consuming. It would be conceivable, to set up at least two retooling positions. In this setup two format parts can be exchanged simultaneously. Thereby the time required for retooling, I,e, the time during which the machines are not available for production, can be reduced, and especially halved. The problem to be solved hereby is that the safety of both operators must always be guaranteed.
Devices are known, which comprise several working openings for the exchange of format parts and/or for other reparation works or other maintenance works. However, only one of the working openings may be open at a given time. Otherwise the rotation of the blowing wheel within the blow molding machine cannot be triggered manually by an operator. The presented problem is usually resolved in the following way: the second operator leaves his working area and closes and/or locks the respective working opening. Only then the rotation of the blowing wheel can be triggered by the first operator via a control switch. The resulting working method is complicated and time consuming. In particular, this working method does not lead to a significant reduction in the time required for the retooling process.
DE 10 2008 004 773 A1 describes a method for retooling a blow molding device, wherein the blow molding device comprises at least two working areas, within which different processes can be performed simultaneously. In particular, processes are carried out simultaneously, which require approximately the same time for retooling. If the time required for the various processes varies, then the time required for retooling is defined by the time requirement of the slowest process. This patent application specifically refers to the automated retooling of a blow molding device. It does not indicate how the safety of an operator can be guaranteed during manual retooling.